Appreciation 1 Huang Zunxian advocated "revolution in poetry" and advocated "I write with my hand and my mouth". Huang Zunxian's "Miscellaneous Feelings" poem expresses "things that the ancients did not have, a realm that has not been developed". Huang Zunxian's "Preface to the Poems in the House of Humanity" is the forerunner of the vernacular revolution in Chinese poetry, and heralds the direction of the times in the renewal and creative development of poetic imagery. The creations of his overseas travels clearly reflected the impact of the development of modern science in Europe on the human living environment and daily life. Compared with the imagery and metaphors of traditional poetry, they are very different. For example, Liang Qichao believed that the four poems of "Farewell Today" are The banner of "Revolution in the Poetry World" depicts ships, trains, telegraphs, photos, and the contrast between day and night in the eastern and western hemispheres. The subtitle indicates that they are "unprecedented by the ancients." "Bells", "light balloons" and "wheels" that can "turn ten thousand times in one moment" are all products of the development of modern science and technology. One of the excerpts from "Today's Farewell" reads: "Farewell's intestines turn like a wheel, and one moment can make thousands of turns." Seeing the two wheels galloping makes me feel more worried. In ancient times, there were also mountains and rivers, and there were cars and boats carrying farewells. Today, boats and cars are both worried about separation, and they are not allowed to be prepared for the sound of the bell. As soon as it is time, there will be a lot of traces. Although there are thousands of pieces of stone, they are as soft as a finger. They are not afraid of the wind. The sender has not yet returned, and the shadow is disappearing at the end of the sky. "How fast is it to go, and how long will it take to return home? I hope you will take a light balloon when you return." All reflect the object images and life realities in the scope of modern Western scientific knowledge, and have begun to participate in the renewal of modern Chinese poetic imagery. If we compare it with "Today's Farewell" by Wang Kaiyun, a leading figure in the ancient poetry circle in the late Qing Dynasty, the traces of this new change in imagery may be more prominent. Wang Kaiyun, who is 15 years older than Huang Zunxian, adheres to traditional poetic imagery. His poems almost all use the old formulas of Tang and Song Dynasty poems about wives: "broken heart", "end of the world", "luoshang", "floating clouds", "empty curtain" etc.
See Wang Kaiyun's "Farewell Today": In the fifth day of farewell, the spring water grows, / the peach branches become green and the flowers are bright. / Open the curtain and look at the east wind, / My feelings are hurt from far and near. / Your heart is broken, / I am old, / I wear embroidered clothes in the morning. / Sorrow is like the drizzle of tobacco, / Last year the oriole began to sing after leaving, / This year the oriole will fly elsewhere. / What is the heart of the weeping poplar? / Comes from the wind and floating catkins. / The sky is full of floating clouds and bright moonlight, / The curtain is still empty even if I don’t exhaust my endless thoughts. Among them, the sentence "Sorrow is like a drizzle of tobacco" comes directly from "The Sapphire Case" written by He Zhu in the Northern Song Dynasty: "How much leisure and sorrow are there? A Sichuan tobacco is all over the city, and plums are yellow and raining." They also wrote "Today's Farewell", The ink is stuck in the past and nothing new is created. Huang Zunxian's related creations include "Ascend the Eiffel Tower", "London Fog", etc., like his "Farewell Today", they all express a certain artistic pursuit of image innovation to varying degrees, and the depiction of modern scientific and technological objects is one of them. One of the outstanding performances.
However, the scientific and technological objects and life landscapes in Huang Zunxian's works are basically still natural portraits and objective descriptions of new knowledge of foreign customs, and have not yet touched upon the humanistic trend of thought established since the Western Renaissance, let alone It is possible to go deep into the universe and life, the living conditions of society and oneself, and the realm of spiritual freedom to reveal people's modern consciousness and feelings. For example, what is expressed through photos and telegrams in "Farewell Today" is still just the old sentiment of leaving another person and missing his wife. To a large extent, it has not escaped the traditional literati's chanting interest. It can even be said that "its traces have not been transformed" in essence. . ("Mengtiao'an Poetry Talk", Qian Zhonglian) Therefore, these objects and images written by Huang Zunxian are related to scientific and technological life, but compared with the images of modern poetry, there is still a long way to go.
Appreciation 2:
The four chapters of "Today's Farewell" are Huang Zunxian's "casting new ideals into the old style" (Liang Qichao's words), "being able to speak directly about the matters in front of him and using the famous things in front of him" ( Xia Jing Guanyu) is a model work of poetic experimentation. The fourth chapter "Parting Today" uses Yuefu Zaqu songs and lyrics with old inscriptions by Cui Guofu. The style is simple and the writing method is based on ancient methods. However, the content is about the new things of Western industrial civilization at the end of the last century. It sings about ships, trains, telegraphs, etc. Photography and day and night in the east and west hemispheres of the earth. The most widely cited of these is Chapter 1. His experiment was effective. Those things of modern civilization that were considered to lack traditional charm were neatly embedded by the poet into the old and interesting framework. His work was simply to prove that it was possible for old poetry to express modern things. He does not attempt to argue that older poems should be canceled or replaced. This also shows that the "revolutionary" nature contained in the actions of a group of advocates and practitioners of "poetic revolution" is quite weak. However, Huang Zunxian's "Today's Farewell" inadvertently conveyed to us a brand-new message, that is, the sense of novelty possessed by an intellectual living in a feudal agricultural society, and the lack of expression he faced when dealing with these feelings. As an intellectual elite cultivated by this traditional culture, Huang Zunxian has great adaptability. Due to his familiarity with traditional Chinese poetry, he can easily use familiar techniques to appropriately handle the current novelties. This is the "Farewell Today" that we are reading now, which is both old and new. When a Chinese intellectual who first came into contact with Western civilization stood under the last sun of the 19th century and faced the behemoth ships and trains that spewed white smoke, the first thing that shocked him was its incredible speed and power. The phrase "farewell" is often used when writing about farewell in poetry, but Huang Zunxian's poem begins with: "Farewell's intestines turn like a wheel." It is quite novel to connect the traditional artistic conception with the rotation of the train's wheels.
In the past, poets wrote "ten thousand weeks in a day", but now it is "ten thousand weeks in a moment", which is a vivid description of modern speed, which is not found in traditional poetry. Such poems suddenly break the traditional concept of time and space, broaden people's horizons, and make their thinking completely new. Huang Zunxian's idea of ??poetry reform is to use ancient methods as much as possible to express new concepts. This concept is new, but it still stands for protecting the old law, so it is not thorough. But the result of its practice has created a different realm; the realm of traditional Chinese poetry is tranquility, time is long and unchanging, and day and night are also fixed. This kind of artistic conception has disintegrated under the invasion of modern science. The pain of parting in life in this chapter "Farewell Now" has invisibly added new sadness - even the longing in the dream soul has become difficult to realize, because not only How can we get together when we are on separate sides and "go opposite each other day and night"? This is modern poetry. Modern poetry has finally made its way into ancient poetry in a majestic way. Isn’t this exciting? Therefore, although Huang Zunxian's poetic views of "my hand writes my mouth" and "modern people do not have to be the same as the ancients" are not thorough, and there is still a long gap between the new poetry after the Republic of China and the Yuan Dynasty, he uses "new ideals" and " This "invasion" of the classics by "new ideas" was the first impact in history, and he was indispensable. When talking about Huang Zunxian's contribution to the transformation of poetry, we cannot ignore the fact that as an old poet, he brought to the expansion of the connotation of classical poetry and the artistic help he brought to it with his broad experience and rich scientific knowledge. Huang Zunxian was the first member of the last feudal dynasty in China to understand the Western world. His profound knowledge and rich experience were rare at that time. He has been to Japan and Singapore in the East, and to Britain and the United States in the West. During his missions to various countries, he made many stops at sea and visited many countries along the way. As far as old poetry is concerned, he undoubtedly brought many unprecedented characters and a lot of common sense to it. This kind of expansion and even renewal of the artistic conception of old poetry was an invisible and strong impact. Not just a shock, but a huge shock, a transformation without claims. "Gongdu was a man of great talent. He rarely traveled to the Eastern and Western countries. He encountered strange sights and strange conditions. He wrote them down in poetry. His pen was powerful and insightful, and it was enough to achieve his purpose. The collection of Zimei opened up the world of poetry, which has never been done before by ancient and modern poets. Ye", this is Xu Shichang's affirmation that his poems can be filled with "wonderful scenes and strange shapes". There are many such comments, and looking at Huang Zunxian's creations, this is indeed very prominent. His work has greatly expanded the connotation of old Chinese poetry. Things that were considered unsuitable for poetry in the past have now been dealt with relatively appropriately in his writings. This is his contribution that cannot be ignored. He opened up new territories for old poetry, or in other words, he discovered a new continent in the sky of traditional poetry. In this sense, it is not too much to say that he is the Columbus of Chinese poetry.
Appreciation 3: The rhyme and sentence meaning of this poem are influenced by the Tang Dynasty poet Meng Jiao's "Che Yao Yao", but the poet's feelings are completely different from the emotions of separation written in classical poetry. Infused with a modern experience. It is true that this poem is obviously influenced by Meng Jiao's "The Car Away", and both express the pain of separation between men and women, and both use boats and cars as the lyrical carriers of separation. However, Huang Zunxian's feelings are different from Meng Jiao's "Today's Car". The life experience in "Parting" has the sign of the times, that is, a kind of modernity.